James was living in The Whitechapel's Yates Court, one of our specialist facility for families who find themselves homeless. Becoming homeless had been very unsettling for James and as a result he had become quieter and had developed trouble mixing and socialising with other children. His mum said he only really seemed happy when he sat by himself playing with Lego and that he was a really talented model maker.

In order try to help James settle in, and get to know the other children in the centre, our Children and Young Person Project Worker, Sue, organised a Lego Therapy session over the school holidays and invited all the children. But when the day arrived James stayed in his flat, too shy to join the twenty other children.

Knowing that James just needed a little care and reassurance Sue went and spoke with James and explained everything that would happen and then promised that if he came along she’d look after him.

James was still wary but Sue paired him with a child who didn’t speak English. This really took the pressure off James, who was still shy about talking, and they had to work together and follow instructions using non-verbal communication and play. In the end they’d made a wonderful, fierce Lego monster and were very proud of themselves.

The next step was for James and his partner to work together, without any adult help, to create a landscape for their Lego monster. When it was time to show the group what they’d created and explain the landscape to the group it was James who presented it and excitedly explained everything they’d done. It was such a big step for James who learned that the Yates Court was a safe place and that the other children could be his friends.​James continues to gain more and more confidence and Sue knows this is only the first step - she’ll keep finding creative, fun ways for James to build his self-worth and move forward happily in his life for as long as he needs it.

​Lisa and Paulene, two of the Whitechapel Centre’s Street Outreach Team, have been working since 6am. They started their day in Sefton Park, following a report of a someone seen sleeping rough near Lark Lane. They find a man asleep across the pavement. He turns out to have hostel accommodation, but had been drinking all night and ‘stayed out’ on the street. Lisa and Paulene help him back to his hostel accommodation. ‘He was so cold I could feel it through my coat as I had my arm in his.’ They agree a plan of increased support with the hostel to prevent him staying out again. ‘He was a professor once.’ Lisa tells me.

Now it is 10am and we’re heading out onto the streets of Liverpool City Centre. Despite their early start, Lisa and Paulene are still full of energy and clearly passionate about the work they do. Together they have a combined twenty-five years of experience helping homeless people through various different stages of their route to independent living. It’s this expertise and insight that makes them perfect for Street Outreach work. Lisa tells me that Street Outreach is often the first experience a homeless person will have of the Whitechapel Centre and whether it goes well or not will often influence how likely they are to trust the charity and use our services.

It does take time, they say, to build up trust with people who have often had their trust abused in some way in the past. It’s a ‘slow burn’ and sometimes it can take months, or even years, just to establish a relationship. But Paulene and Lisa don’t give up. ‘People eventually warm to that consistency…and that means the communication is there, you can check they’re OK. They realise they can trust you.’

And that’s the job of the Street Outreach Team, who not only try to ensure that those who are new to the streets are immediately given whatever support they need, including, most importantly, somewhere to sleep, but also to reach those who are what they term ‘entrenched homeless’. This means the people who are the very hardest to reach, have been on the streets for a long period of time and have become used to this way and are wary about giving it up for something new they don’t know.

As we walk into the city centre I ask about how their day works. They tell me they know everyone and will go see everyone who is out. They see some people every day, to say hello, build a relationship and eventually help them access the support they need either through the Whitechapel Centre itself or through partner organisations. ‘There is a lot of undiagnosed mental health issues out there’ in that case they work with a partner organisation to make an assessment and offer help. They will also help them with welfare benefit issues, drug treatment and recovery services and access to specialised medical care – as quite often issues, such as trench foot or dental problems, have become far worse for lack of treatment.​

‘We’ll never stop offering help, we never give up on anyone.’

In the city centre, Lisa and Paulene walk directly to the clients they’ve been working with. Sometimes it’s as simple as a kind word, a chat about their current accommodation or immediate housing needs, support with benefits, even helping one man put up an umbrella as it’s now raining heavily. Sometimes the cases are more complex. At one point they approach a couple living in a tent in the city centre. Lisa and Paulene have secured a place in a local hostel, but it’s not in their preferred area of choice. Lisa and Paulene discuss the pro’s and cons of the offer, looking at what might work. The couple reject the offer, along with the offer of Labre House, the night hub, as this couple don’t wish to give up their independence and insist on waiting for hostel places in an area they know and will be happy to be rehomed to. Our team understand that listening to the needs of those they are trying to help is so important if they are going to truly make steps towards living a different life. Lisa and Paulene will continue to look for a place in their hostel of choice.We have walked a full loop of the city centre, stopping to make sure people are OK, offer them support, let them know the help is there when they’re ready. I ask what the best part of the job is, and they tell me it’s the small things: getting someone to finally accept a shower and some food at the day centre; getting someone to at least go and look at a hostel, supported accommodation or the night hub; the times when, finally, a person doesn’t shout at them but instead accepts a cup of tea and is willing to just talk about the weather. That moment when someone agrees to go to the specialist drop-in doctor with them. It can be slow progress but it’s life changing progress because the change is so much more likely to be lasting if they’ve made those decisions themselves with our Outreach Team there to support them. Paulene and Lisa are experienced enough to understand this, they clearly care deeply about their jobs and about helping everyone who they encounter, ‘We’ll never stop offering help’ says Lisa, ‘We never give up on anyone.’Back at Labre House, the night shelter which is being prepared for the evening, Lisa and Paulene dry off. I ask them if they’ll have a lunchbreak now and Paulene says, ‘I never take a lunchbreak. Why would I do that? I could be out helping people.’ ​

It’s fitting that today is both World Homelessness Day and World Mental Health Day as the two so often go hand in hand. In fact, our recent Impact Stats showed that mental health difficulties are the most common primary reason that people in Liverpool become homeless.Sometimes understanding and overcoming mental health barriers is the most fundamental aspect of supporting someone who finds themselves homeless and that’s why our Outreach Team are on the streets every day.The team offer to support those who have become entrenched in a ‘street lifestyle’. This means that they find it hard to adapt to independent living and either continue to sleep on the streets, return regularly to ask for money or engage with the street homeless community. Mental health, mistrust of outsiders and understandable difficulties in moving forward with their life can all contribute to this.With years of work on the frontline of homelessness, mental health and drug misuse support, our Outreach Team go out into the community to try and establish a relationship with those who are hardest to reach with the long-term aim of helping them to live an independent life. People like Matthew.Matthew had been rough sleeping all over Merseyside for two years when our team found him living in a tent. Matthew was very reluctant to accept any help and initially wouldn’t even open up the tent, only speaking through a small hole in the zip. When our team offered to arrange a taxi to take him to our day centre for a shower, food and a change of clothes he would become hostile and aggressive.Luckily, our team are highly experienced and know that often there are no quick fixes and it’s a case of helping that person build up trust in the relationship. With this in mind, they started visiting Matthew more regularly and often up to four times a day. Soon he started to open up and explained that he had been sleeping on the streets throughout his life. He also had mental health problems and a history offending both of which made it even harder to get his life back on track. Our team could tell that, as resistant as he seemed, Matthew really wanted to have a better future. ​

The next step was getting Matthew to accept any sort of help at all and that started with a cup of coffee. Each day our workers would bring him a hot drink and eventually he started not just accepting the coffee but also opening up the tent and coming out of it to speak with them. Finally, our team were able to get him to come with them to a nearby Greggs where they would sit inside together over a coffee and talk. Walking to a local café is something we would take for granted but, for Matthew, it was a huge step forward.

During those trips with our team who he’d come to trust and like it eventually emerged that the reason why Matthew wouldn’t attend either our day or night centres. He told them that because of his mental health problems he found it incredibly hard to be around crowds and doing so would trigger paranoid episodes that he was terrified of.

Once our team understood the barrier they started looking for a solution. They explained to Matthew that they could help arrange support without him having to go to a centre at all. From the same Greggs where they’d been having a coffee each day, where he felt comfortable and safe, our team did an initial assessment which meant they could start the process of finding Matthew a home.

Our team continued to visit him daily until a room was made available in supported shared housing and then our team helped Matthew move in within twenty-four hours. They also provided him with the little things that can make all the difference when settling into a new home - a food parcel until his benefits arrived, clothes and a toiletry kit.

Because we understand that the root cause of homelessness is not simply about having a roof over your head our team ensured that Matthew had mental health care and support for drug misuse recovery. Our team still speak to Matthew regularly on the telephone and visit him once a week to see if he needs anything or simply to offer companionship. After years of rough sleeping Matthew is finally settling in well into a home, gaining the help he needs and hasn’t been on the streets since.

Our annual Impact Stats have just been released and reveal the charity supported a record 4,025 people who were experiencing housing difficulties or homelessness, almost a thousand more than the previous year.

In the year 2017/18 The Whitechapel Centre was able to rehome 1648 homeless people into the right accommodation for their needs and prevented 1243 individuals from becoming homeless thanks to interventions for those at risk including drop-in advice sessions, benefits advice and personal negotiation with landlords and agencies. The charity also supported 1199 people into education and employment activities to ensure they can continue to live independently.

The Impact Stats also show that there has been a 119% increase in use of our services since 2011. This reflects the rise in homelessness of 169% right across England since 2010.

The charity, who offer support in housing at every step of the journey of homelessness, from the moment a person is at risk of losing their home, right through to those who have become entrenched in a ‘street lifestyle’, have been able to meet this increased need. Our services are open to all, operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our ‘wrap-around’ care includes day and night shelters, a 24hr public helpline (0300 123 2041), and dedicated Street Outreach Teams.

The charity’s in-depth research, conducted by frontline staff, also shows that homelessness really can happen to anyone. In fact, the most common reasons for homelessness in the city are accommodation breakdown, mental health issues, financial difficulties and relationship problems. The research also found that 71% of the people accessing their services were aged between 20-44 years highlighting the importance of quick intervention for young people experiencing homelessness.

We understand how upsetting it can be to see people on the street, particularly as the days get colder. The Whitechapel Centre operates an ‘Always Room Inside’ policy. This means that as soon as we identify someone as sleeping on the streets, we’ll make the effort to find out what assistance they need and offer them a meal, shower and bed that same night.

However, our service users’ situations are as complex and unique as the people themselves. For some, they are ready to accept the support they need and come to one of our centres on the first day we meet them. But, for many others it may take days, weeks or even months before they feel they can trust anyone. Often, there are no quick fixes and it takes time to build up the good relationship that’s needed to help them.

What you can be assured of is that the The Whitechapel Centre will be using our decades of experience and insight to engage with that person each step of their journey, from the moment they are at risk of homelessness, for as long as it takes.

We won’t give up on anyone - when they are ready to accept assistance, we’ll be ready to offer tailored and effective support.

Sometimes, it’s not just about having accommodation but tackling the, often complicated, root cause of their difficulties. This can mean addressing additional challenges like mental health issues, substance abuse, family breakdowns, job loss or simply being used to life on the street.For this reason, The Whitechapel Centre have a highly experienced Street Outreach Team who go out each day to talk to those people who are on the street but aren’t ready to come inside yet. Slowly they build a relationship with these rough sleepers by making sure they’re OK each day, encouraging them to visit one of our centres - even just to have a shower, to wash clothes and have some food – and by offering other vital services and support when they can see they need them.Over time many of these rough sleepers will develop enough trust to make their first step towards rehousing and an independent future away from the streets.If you're concerned about someone on the street then please call the 24hr helpline on 0300 123 2041 (low-cost number) which will enable us to send out Street Outreach Team to offer the support they need as soon as possible.